"Tim Rhodes" <proftim@SPEAKEASY.ORG> wrote:
> Seems too constrained an evironment to me. Are birdsongs memes?
Not until somebody intentionally spreads them. (most birds are genetically
trained to sing their songs -- not memes) For instance, the songs that my
dad can wistle are memes.
> Our first proposition, the one that defines us as who we are, is
> the denial of someone else's proposition? Isn't this kinda like
> defining "light" as the absence of "darknesss"?
My propositions were without order -- you may promote the lucifer one to
first if it pleases you. As to defining things by what they arn't, it's a
surprisingly effective method. A fluid is a material which *cannot* resist
shear stresses. This is the heart of fluid dynamics.
Besides, the purpose of a definition is to seperate that which is in
question from the rest of the universe. For sufficiently large ideas, it
sometimes easier to use what it ain't.
> Yes. (Conditionals make easy truisms--"If pigs can fly, the moon
> is made of green cheese" is also quite acceptable.)
Well, there is an ambiguity in that I didn't state "truth is the goal" well
as "if truth is the goal then ...". However, I think there has been enough
argument here on virus about truth being the goal that it is officially NOT
a virion proposition.
"Science has acheived some wonderful things, I know, but I'd far rather be
happy than right anyday"
"and are you?"
"no. That's where it all falls down, of course"
> Come to think of it, all the proposals should be koans...
Brialliant! I assign the worthy task of converting them to our Great
Guru... none other than yourself!
> >7) No mysteries are sacrosanct, no limits unquestionable; the
> >unknown will yield to the ingenious mind. (Max More)
>
> Unquestionably true!
Is "truth" a limit?
How about this for a virian proposition:
8) ... one has nothing to fear and everything to gain, from the honest
pursuit of truth. The desire for knowledge, for facts unvarnished by
emotional prejudices and so forth, will always function for a man's
long-range benefit. It can never be against your interest to know
what the truth is. -- George Smith: How to Defend Atheism (1976)
ERiC